Homeowners in Ottawa will no longer be able to avoid unpaid fines, following a change in provincial legislation.
Starting in May, the city will have the power to tag unpaid municipal and provincial fines onto property tax bills.
The legislative change allows municipalities to charge unpaid fines to property taxes, and is expected to boost municipal revenues. The city stands to collect more than $23 million in unpaid parking tickets alone.
"These fines aren't going to go away," said Ken Hughes, the city's deputy treasurer of revenue. "The only thing that extinguishes these fines is death."
In the past, city officials seeking payment for outstanding fines were mainly limited to issuing letters and making phone calls. In instances involving significant fines, the city could go through the court system to collect, Hughes said.
"The municipalities have been asking for additional enforcement options for some time and, last fall, the province put forth a bill indicating that this was one of the changes they were going to come forth with," Hughes said.
The city will also be able to collect about $40 million in outstanding provincial offences fines, such as those for highway speeding, dating back to 1970. In Ontario, municipalities are responsible for collecting fines from violations against the Provincial Offences Act and get 75 per cent of the revenue. The other 25 per cent goes to the province's victim surcharge fund.
Those with unpaid fines will see the charges added to their property tax bills, although Hughes said he doesn't expect that to happen until later this year or in early 2011. Despite the new legislation coming into effect in May, Hughes said the city needs time to roll out the new practice.
Ja wenn man sein " fine" nicht bezahlt Oder es erst zu einem " fine" kommen laesst dan sollte man kein haus kaufen ...... Da muss ich tenner recht geben
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20.03.2010 13:56
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